The Nationless Pavilion. Nation 25

Around the world, more than 51.5 million individuals have either fled their country or are displaced from their homes due to war and violence. If they were considered as a country, they would represent the 25th most populous nation on Earth.  Millions more flee crushing economic realities in search for opportunities to survive.
These displaced people make extraordinary efforts to flee after havingwitnessed the failure of politics, the failure of systems and the failure of diplomacy. They seek invisibility as they cross borders. They perish invisibly on the high seas. They endure conditions that test the limits of human understanding. Their survival is facilitated by  the universe of their imagination; sparks of creativity and resilience.
Nation 25  seeks to shine a light on the lives of refugees, migrants and the internally displaced through the language of art. Is it possible to map the physical and psychological cartography of displacement? What are the different human experiences of the dispossessed whose territory is both multilayered and fluid? The project will work through critical questions around the experience of flight: the nature of borders, crossing and drift, the geography of fear, resilience and imaginative places of safety.
Nation 25 will put forward the art of refugees, displaced and migrants and those who work with them as part of a Nationless Pavilion worthy of representation among the nations of the Venice 56th Biennale. To do so requires imagining a territory  and providing a forum that encompasses the narratives and experiences of a people whose lives have been fractured and recreated. It requires a rethinking of the concept of nation and its possibilities as it applies to people who are fundamentally dispossessed. The project will open in Venice with a series of collective moments from May to November.
 – ROUNDTABLE (SaLE Docks) // May 8, 2015, 3.00 – 5.30 pm Rendering a Nation: The Territories of the Dispossessed. Refugees, migrants, artists and humanitarians will discuss the notion of a Nationless Pavilion from their own expertise and experience.
The meeting will take place around  a table prepared with texts, objects, photos, documents and sources linked to the interventions. The discussion will seek to better define the idea of a “nation” whose existence is based on common needs and experiences as opposed to territorial integrity.
The talk also seeks to explore how the relationship between a pavilion and the artistic practice it includes can address the challenges of dispossession. The idea of a Nationless pavilion requires that we  rethink notions of borders, identity, belonging and exclusion. This critique inherently addresses the 19 Century concepts of nation state that anchor the Biennale itself.  The challenge is to find a pavilion that embodies a place of belonging – one with artistic work that relates both to social facts and imaginative possibilities.
Visual contributions: Gregory Beals, Elena Bellantoni, Shady El Noshokaty, Rosa Jijon, Stalker/Osservatorio Nomade, Calixto Ramirez Correa, Emanuele Satolli.

– ACTION (SaLE Docks, Giardini, Arsenale, Venice) // May 6 to November 22, 2015
Square Tape
To claim/map a symbolic presence and plot the size of an discursive border, we ask the permission to the curators of each National Pavilion to include in their space a square made of tape, symbolising the lives of refugees, displaced and migrants. We would like the public also to put forward their own piece of tape as a gesture of acceptance of refugees and migrants.
The request is a kind of  “residence permit,” whose intention is to explore openness/closures of various nations. Conversations regarding permissions for square tape will live as a visible history/documentation inside Sale Docks.
Square Tape is also an open window, accessible by anyone, anywhere, that as a collective gesture connects elements beyond space and time.

SUBMISSIONS:
Between May and October 2015 Nation25 will call for  submissions. We are looking for work from refugees, the displaced and migrants that speaks to what it means to be a citizen of Nation25. We will also accept work from humanitarian workers, artists and journalists on the same subject. All relevant submissions will be part of the Nation25 online pavilion. Other submissions will be part of the Nationless Pavilion at Sale Docks. Submissions should be emailed to submissions@nation25.org. Deadline for submissions is September 15, 2015.

 – LABORATORY/ (S.a.L.E Docks, Venezia) // October-November 2015
Construction of Nationless Pavilion and Nation 25
During the month of October, the Nationless Pavilion will be hosted by Sale Docks.
On this occasion it will launch a laboratory to “build-constitute” Nation 25 and the  Nationless Pavilion, giving them shape, a view, from the analysis of the common perspectives of refugees, migrants and the internally displaced: reasons for departure, crossing borders, waiting, horizons and goals, hybrid identities. This exercise will be to fix a dynamic entity — one that is inherently changeable, that nevertheless encompasses common needs and a common focus for intervention.

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